Introducing the Official Heavy Rain Box Art

Some of you surfing around yesterday might have stumbled upon what might be the US packfront. We just wanted to drop a note to everyone confirming that the below, is indeed, the US packfront for Heavy Rain:

We’re also able to confirm Heavy Rain‘s final ESRB rating has come in at a strong M for Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language and Use of Drugs. And for those of you who have asked, the content is exactly the same as what’s being released in all our territories, so you’ll get to enjoy it exactly as Quantic Dream intended.

We’ll have much more in the coming days as we get closer to launch, so keep an eye out on the Blog for more information on one of PlayStation’s hottest titles of 2010!

Alright, I just saw the European cover art and I’m going to agree… with THE AMERICAN ONE. You can edge towards this one being “too busy” but the European one looks like it’s having a REALLY slow day. Could there be a nice in-between? Sure, but this will do just fine.

Wow. The Eu cover art is SIGNIFICANTLY better and less “gamey” than this. They try to make a game that is more mature than anything out there and then they go and make the box art say, “Look! I’m a video game!”

I hope HR’s trophies don’t pop up until AFTER the game is entirely finished. It will be distracting.

I actually think both boxarts are bad. If you take the title from the EU and mix it with the US background, and apply ugly brown or sepia and then you have … something. But this game wasn’t for me anyways I think I’ll skip it.

@ Christian Cardona – Thank you so much for offering the UK box art for download when the game launches. I, for one, believe the very simplistic, yet powerful, artwork chosen for the UK release is far better than the US release.

The only reason I can give for the move is to add a dash of sex appeal to the game to get more people to consider the purchase. The game’s initial sales may not be all that hot compared to Indigo Prophecy, but word of mouth will get that ball rolling; I bought Indigo Prophecy at launch, but got a handful of others to buy it simply because of my word.

This falls in-line with Nintendo’s decision to make Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks boxart for the NA release more…violent, or edgy, given Link is angrily grasping his sword, as opposed to the happy-go-lucky allure he has on the UK boxart, riding the Spirit Train.

Bad move on the art change. It won’t change the fact I’m buying this, of course, but I will be downloading that file and tossing the US artwork in favor of the UK’s.

The box art does not make the game, everyone complaining about the box art…why are you wasting your time. Are you gonna frame the box art on your wall or are you going to throw the game in your console super quickly and enjoy one of the greatest and most innovative games to come out in who knows how long.

please announce a collectors edition or have available a poster+ alternate cover art of the eu version for us interested to just buy directly from u. id drop cash immediately for it. i preordered heavy rain back in october i think. just a little longer

Madman, you do realize having boxart that is too simple on a game that isn’t already a well established franchise is also a bad thing? Lots of sales will be lost if the game does not stand out on shelves. This isn’t about art, it’s about getting extra sales by at least having the game be visible to someone passing through a store.

As a designer and as a consumer I prefer the EU version. This one won’t stick out on the shelves at all. The EU one is really eye catching and different. It makes you want to pick it up to see what it could be all about.

I don’t really like the boxart for the US version. I think something like the girl’s eye in the rain would have been better. Oh well, either way I’ll probably get it. I have it reserved already….but about the language, how bad is the language? I probably won’t get it if the language turns out to be really bad…some swearing is fine, but you must admit, most movies and games (like army of 2) use curse words to the point that it is just annoying and seems juvenile.

I don’t mind having the 4 characters on the cover, but if you chose to do that, you should give equal focus to all 4 main characters. I hate how the focus is mainly on Madison, it just makes it look bad.

Oh America, so predictable. I knew they wouldn’t fail to add hovering bodies on the cover when the original captured the atmosphere of the game perfectly.

Oh well, the printable PDF is an okay compromise I suppose, just sucks for the people that don’t have good printers. Regardless, all publishers should start putting up PDF covers for all their games just for this reason (I’m looking at you FFXIII)